Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today called on the Union Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and sought a special Financial Package for the state including the reimbursement of Rs 2694 crore already repaid out of Special Term Loan besides waiver of Rs 298 crore being demanded by the Ministry of Home Affairs on count of expenditure incurred on Para Military forces deployed during the period of militancy from 1980 to 1995 in the state.During an interaction with Mr. Jaitley, the Chief Minister also impressed upon him to release an amount of Rs 5000 crore as non plan grant for the current financial year till the 14th Finance Commission’s report was out. Likewise, he also urged Mr. Jaitley to immediately intervene in the settlement of outstanding dues of nearly Rs 10000 crore of state procurement agencies pending with FCI since long time. Mr. Badal urged the Union Minister to constitute an empowered committee in this regard to resolve this long pending issue once for all.Seeking waiver of conditions imposed by the 13th Finance Commission on the resetting of interest on small saving loans, the Chief Minister urged Mr. Jaitley to be reworked at 9% instead of 9.5% and 10%. He also impressed upon Mr. Jaitley for waiver of the centre government loans in view of state’s distressed financial position. Mr. Badal pointed out that the 13th Finance Commission had already placed the states of Punjab, Kerala and West Bengal in the category of Revenue Deficit states and it recommended to the Union government to find out ways and means to bail out these states from financial stringency. Now the Government of India (GoI) has again referred this vital issue to the 14th Finance Commission.
Pleading for the case of outstanding debt waiver of Rs 1.02 lakh crore on count of militancy, the Chief Minister said that Punjab fought the national battle for which it should not be penalized anymore. Mr. Badal mentioned that he got this debt waived by making personal efforts and request to the then Prime Minister Mr. IK Gujral. He also said that Punjab was a Revenue surplus state till 1982 but due to the burden this debt coupled with Industrial concessions to the neighboring states led to further flight of capital and stopped any fresh investments further accentuated our woes and put our state in the whirlpool of debt trap.Seeking Ministry of Defence’s clearance for international flights from Chandigarh airport, the Chief Minister urged Mr. Jaitley to accord speedy approvals in this behalf to cater the heavy rush of passengers going to Delhi for boarding such flights. He also sought permission for opening civil air terminals at Air force stations Adampur in Jalandhar and Halwara in Ludhiana.
Responding to the issues raised by the Chief Minister on positive nod, Mr. Jaitley assured that he would soon get the entire case examined by his ministry so that a final decision could be taken in this behalf. He also agreed to constitute a committee to resolve the issue relating to the release of payments due towards FCI. Mr. Jaitley assured the Chief Minister that he would soon get the entire mater examined at the level of Ministry of Defence for giving necessary approvals for the operation of Adampur and Halwara civil terminals. Likewise, he also promised to give clearance for the commission of international flights from Chandigarh and resumption of international flights from Amritsar, which had been either cancelled or discontinued to facilitate the Punjabi Diaspora, settled aboard across the globe.
The Chief Minister was accompanied by his Advisor on National Affairs and Media Mr. Harcharan Bains, his Principal Secretary Mr. SK Sandhu and Special Principal Secretary Mr. Gaggandip Singh Brar.